Big Match revellers are safe from Colombo City trees: CMC

• Project to prune or remove old trees in the city  is successfully underway reducing risk to public and property

By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana   

In somewhat good news for thousands of Big Match revellers who are expected to throng the streets around large cricket grounds in Colombo in the coming weeks, the Colombo Municipal Council assures safety from collapsing old city trees that could cause loss to public property and lives.   

The project, which was underway to mark and remove close to about 1,000 old trees situated in and around Colombo City was progressing slowly but successfully and a senior CMC official said the risk of trees or branches collapsing onto the streets had been significantly reduced.   

With the commencement of the schools cricket Big Match season from late February and is expected to last for about a month until early April the safety of thousands of unsuspecting spectators was questioned as most of the huge old trees are situated around leading cricket clubs in Colombo.   

Asked about the safety of match spectators and hundreds of their vehicles, which are even expected to parade streets in lengthy colourful processions, CMC Commissioner Palitha Nanyakkara told the Daily Mirror that the risk posed from old trees had significantly been reduced lately.   

Nanayakkara said their staff had been engaged in either pruning the dangerously hanging branches of large trees or removing them entirely to prevent them from collapsing onto public and property.   

He said currently they are seeking the expertise of a senior academic of the Department of National Botanic Gardens in Peradeniya to operate and read the sophisticated tree scanning machine and duly attend to those identified as posing risks to the surroundings.   

“Most of the old and riskier trees had been identified along the Bauddhaloka Mawatha, where ‘Mara Trees’ had been pruned or removed in the last few months,” the Commissioner said.